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Monthly Archives: June 2010

“The fact is, as experience shows, that new life is not the result of each and every act of sexual intercourse.” Humanae Vitae

God’s natural, beautiful design is that women are only fertile for a short time each month. Taking into account egg life (48 hours at most) and sperm life (up to five days depending on the type of mucus in the woman’s body), there are approximately seven fertile days in a woman’s cycle.

Other factors include each woman’s individual level of fertility, the type of mucus, their age (the younger they are, the more fertile) and the man’s particular level of fertility (sperm count and quality of sperm). For a normal healthy couple actively seeking a pregnancy, it usually happens within six months.

Intercourse is not supposed to result in pregnancy every time a couple engages in the marital embrace. And contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church does not teach that a couple must actively seek pregnancy every time they engaged in marital relations. But she does teach that intercourse must at least implicitly retain its procreative meaning. Therefore, if spacing or avoidance of pregnancy is desired, the couple may use Natural Family Planning…that is, relations during the infertile time.

NFP is safe, healthy and effective and works as good, if not better, than most of the popular contraceptive devices without any of the side effects.

Let us pray each time we approach the marital bed: “I take you to be my spouse. I come here freely, I love you totally and I am open to creating children with you.”

A few days ago, the local newspaper printed an article about me and it’s now been uploaded to their website.

“Ellen Gable Hrkach has been awarded the gold (first place) medal in Religious Fiction in the 2010 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards for her novel, In Name Only. Hrkach, whose first novel, Emily’s Hope, won an Honorable Mention Award in the 2006 IPPY Awards, accepted her gold medal at a gala awards ceremony in New York City on May 25.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? Put down the birth control. You heard me. Put it down and walk away.

I don’t like to be harsh, but the hour is late. The citizens of many countries belong on the endangered species because they are dying out. Never before in the history of the world have so many countries lost so many people without disease or war to blame. This loss is by choice and it’s downright suicidal.”

This is a beautiful quote by Lawrence Lovasik from his book, the Hidden Power of Kindness, published by Sophia Press:

“If you want to win souls for Christ, you must willingly endure the anguish for sins that sinners do not experience, in order to win at least ultimately the grace of repentance for them. You may have to go through the agonies of delayed hopes for many hearts, and even seeming failure at the end, for someone whose soul has been your deep concern. But your sincere devotion to bring a soul to Christ will not be in vain. God knows the secret workings of His grace in souls.”

This quote sums up one of the themes of my first book, Emily’s Hope. As well, it can be an appropriate quote for mothers (like St. Monica, who prayed for many years that her son, St. Augustine, would repent and convert.)

It was a hard-to-put down, compelling tale and one of the most entertaining and engaging Catholic novels I’ve ever read, filled with rich language and beautiful imagery, as well as excellent (and brilliant) writing. There’s a definite Flannery O’Connor feel to it, but this novel was unlike any other Catholic novel I had ever read. As an NFP teacher and as a novelist whose own books’ themes center around the Theology of the Body, I was particular impressed with how well the author illustrated these teachings within the context of the book.

I just created an author profile on a cool website called BookTour.com where authors, agents and publishers can share information regarding book tours. The listing also has all the information regarding upcoming conferences I’ll be attending as well as book signings.

This quote by John Paul II brings to light the importance of chastity in our sex-saturated culture. A friend of ours once stated, “It doesn’t matter how well you raise your children. There are no guarantees they will wait until marriage to have sex.” While this is true, I believe that, as parents, we can stack the odds in our favor and help our college-aged children remain chaste.

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I am an author, editor, self-publishing book coach, speaker, publisher, NFP teacher, book reviewer, Theology of the Body teacher and Marriage Preparation Instructor. However, the roles I love the most are being wife to my husband of 36 years, James, and mother to our five adult sons, ages 19-31.

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